The hero’s journey is a paint by numbers approach to storytelling. And it’s not doing new writers any favours.
Here’s why.
The hero’s journey is nothing more than a plot outline. It’s a bunch of things happening to the hero, in a predictable order. It looks like this:
The hero lives an ordinary life → The hero receives a call to action → The hero tries to refuse the call → The hero meets a mentor → The hero crosses the threshold → the hero faces an ordeal → The hero is reborn → The hero is rewarded → The hero returns home.
It’s literally a paint by numbers. The “story” is already done for you, you just have to fill in the blanks. But the real reason it’s bullshit is that it fails to teach people why it works as a story in the first place.
The hero’s journey is in some of the greatest stories ever told, like Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Lord of the Rings. But the reason for its success is not that it's some mystical perfect story. It works because it guarantees the one and only thing a good story actually needs. And that is a deep and meaningful change in the hero.
The hero’s journey is just a means to an end. It’s not a real story in and of itself, but it makes telling a real story more likely. Because it sets the hero up for this big change. A change that leaves them a very different person to the one they were in the beginning.
Using the hero’s journey is like bowling with the bumper rails up. It protects those who don’t know what they’re doing from making a total mess out of their story. But just as bumpers can’t make you a pro bowler, the hero’s journey does not, and can not, make you a pro storyteller.
It’s too predictable. Too overused. And too easy. If you want to write something unique that can hold anyone's attention, don't paint by numbers.
The only lesson from the hero’s journey is that the heart of a story is the personal change of the characters in it. How they change, why they change, and the consequences of that change, can literally be whatever you want.
The only sin is letting your characters leave the story the same person they were when they entered it. As long as they go through a genuine transformation, it’s a story.
Throw out any cookie-cutter, paint by numbers, plot outline bullshit, and just tell a damn story.
And make it one that only you can tell.